Anwar Rasheed’s ‘Trance’, starring Fahadh Faasil, has its problems but is never less than fascinating

‘Trance’ is nothing if not ambitious: Christian symbolism spills over from every frame. But it’s the screenplay (Vincent Vadakkan) that’s most indicative of the film’s ambition.

Spoilers ahead…

Early on in Anwar Rasheed’s Trance, we see a sign in the run-down building where Viju (Fahadh Faasil) lives. It’s one of those Facebook-y motivational quotes: There’s no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. If only this were true! Viju’s cramped flat — he shares it with his brother, Kunjan (Sreenath Bhasi) — is a few stairs above this sign, and he keeps taking them. But success? Ironically, it will have to wait until he finds himself in an elevator and runs into a Mumbai-based woman… In other words, that motivational sign — like most motivational signs — is a bunch of bull. It’s the elevator that helps Viju succeed, not the stairs. And indeed, like one does in an elevator, Viju zooms to the top.

Totally bowled over by the movie. I felt quite envious at the level of finesse Mollywood displays in such movies.

1) Esther’s role was the weakest link. But, much like the Esther of Bible, she persuades the king (JC) from Jews (beliegetting killed.I have to watch it once more to see how her character has been woven in the screenplay.
2) The amount of detailing the movie went to depict evangelist organizations is phenomenal. I have seen in close quarters how Paul Dinakaran runs a 24 hour call center to do tele prayers via call center agents. In a passing scene, the movie shows a call center that is being run by the Glorious Ministries
3) The repeat sequence device was fabulous, although used less powerfully. At first, we laugh at the hordes of believers. The sound design also gives us cues to make this seem like a joke. As the sequence repeats itself, we slowly see the lives at stake and it comes down to a point of stomach churn towards the end when we know that this drug has gobbled up both the pastor and his sheep. Perhaps, the writers were inspired by Requiem for a dream, which uses this device more powerfully.

I am waiting to watch this again in Prime or somewhere to see which parts I missed.

In this political climate, astounded that this movie released without much controversy. This also puts paid to pathetic comments about ‘ You dont have confidence to mock other religions’ claims.

That being said this movie had a weak second half IMO. However much much needed movie. Organized religion is the pits. Very happy that such a movie could be released and is a massive hit. These organizations prey on people who are weak (Physically or mentally). These pathetic organizations deserve to die, but won’t.

A riveting look at mental health -both the pastor’s and the flock’s and a ‘descent into madness’. Amal’s cinematography was striking but -unusual for him- also didn’t distract.FF was electric,I couldnt take my eyes off him .

On another note-in an interview Vadakkan(the writer) gave to The Cue,he seems to suggest that the audience may be reading too much into the Biblical metaphors:he states that he didn’t intend to make the two ‘evil’ investors analogous to the devil/Judas or somesuch and didnt visualise Esther as a Magdalenesque persona . And to which I must say:Mrs Fahadh was quite miscast -she appeared like a schoolgirl deperate to be taken seriously..I was thinking of actors like Nithya Menen and Sai Pallavi in that role…

Amidst all that you are writing now BR, would you mind writing a piece on how important movies are in the time of crisis. In moments like these, when our collective narrative collapses, when mythquakes occur, how do movies help people gather their sense of agency and help them construct a narrative?

This is not to indulge in existential hand-wringing exercise about cinema. I know you ask “In doing what I am doing, what am I really doing” more number of times than any other critic I’ve known.

There was a recent thread in Jeyamohan’s website about why he has been on a spree writing various short stories in his blog. A reader had asked him why there was not much articles and threads about the corona virus. Although you’ve been kind enough to open a thread about Corona, I think it would be worthwhile to really look at how movies are vital even in the moment of crisis. Maybe, going back to the past, whenever mythquakes have happened, how have people made sense of their environment and themselves through movies?

Watched Trance on Amazon Prime. I would say this is Sathya meets religion. Crazy ambitious premise, and the movie tooks the long scenic route to achieve what it set out to do. Quite a few twists and turns, as Baddy has more eloquently captured.

Haven’t seen such a powerful movie in sometime. Kammatipaadam, which was a fight against property mafia, comes to mind, but this was way more hard hitting and on the face. Jallikattu was somewhat similar in its overall motive as well, though it was even more invasive in delivering its message as the movie crescendoes into an almighty climax. Malayalam movies with intricate stories and the latest movie tech are a heady mix to watch.

Hats off to this movie team for giving this. I literally cannot see any South Indian movie industry take a movie like this. Akshay Kumar might take a crappy remake of this in Bollywood, but honestly who cares about those remakes?

Among the minuses – it did get a little monotonous. If they’d trimmed the movie by 30 minutes, it would’ve been a masterpiece.

Finally caught this on Amazon. Wow, this was amazingly made, slick but the incredibly moving scenes with the younger brother. Then it went nuts and the emotions built up in the opening scenes were not carried through. There was a hell of a lot going on but it felt repetitive after a while.

As for the character of Esther, till she appears in the latter part of the story I was thinking that this is really one of those all male movies. But the all male creative team really does not know what to do with the only woman character in this story.